A Dying Breed

[Trainmaster]

Some of us drive a large SUV because we like the comfort and safety and don't care what the gas costs. I spent my life investigating transportation accidents, so I want a heavy car with a full frame for my family's safety. Since the Excursion's no longer made, I drive an Expedition. I don't care what the gas costs. To me it's worth the price to be safe and comfortable. My money is mine, and this is how I choose to spend it.

 

[Mmart]

Some of us drive a large SUV because we like the comfort and safety and don't care what the gas costs. I spent my life investigating transportation accidents, so I want a heavy car with a full frame for my family's safety. Since the Excursion's no longer made, I drive an Expedition. I don't care what the gas costs. To me it's worth the price to be safe and comfortable. My money is mine, and this is how I choose to spend it.

I agree, besides the Expedition being the right vehicle for what I like to do ( family trips, 4x4 for surf fishing, and being able to to tow my motorcycle) I like the safety of a big solid vehicle. My first car was an 82
T-Bird and on thanksgiving morning in 1996 I got hit by a Honda Accord. We couldn’t be doing more than 20-25mph but his car was mangled. My only injury was from my electronics textbook in the back window flying forward and hitting me. My car only had a smashed front corner. Cop asked me if there was another car involved because there was such a mismatch in damage. That sold me on big cars for good. Since then I’ve had two
F-150s (89 & 98) and two Expeditions (01 and 10). To keep with the large car theme, I also have a 2013 Taurus that my wife drives. I mentioned earlier in the thread that EVs weren’t practical for me. I live in a town house. No garage, no driveway and I’m not guaranteed a parking spot out front to charge up. I still think there’s a few major pieces of that puzzle to be solved before the world really switches I’m not going to be an early adopter.

 

[Boostedbus]

Some of us drive a large SUV because we like the comfort and safety and don't care what the gas costs. I spent my life investigating transportation accidents, so I want a heavy car with a full frame for my family's safety. Since the Excursion's no longer made, I drive an Expedition. I don't care what the gas costs. To me it's worth the price to be safe and comfortable. My money is mine, and this is how I choose to spend it.

AMEN Brother! I think I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again....a Smart car is anything but smart in my book. Or any of those other little tiny cars running on the highways with tractor trailers and such.

 

[Boostedbus]

My first car was an 82
T-Bird and on thanksgiving morning in 1996 I got hit by a Honda Accord. We couldn’t be doing more than 20-25mph but his car was mangled.

Wow an 82 T-Bird was just a stretched Fox body. Still those imports at the time didn’t want to mess with Detroit Steel. I had a 79 Cougar XR7 way back which was the Thunder Chicken’s Cousin and they were the last years of the behemoth Birds and Cats.

 

[Boostedbus]

Some of us drive a large SUV because we like the comfort and safety and don't care what the gas costs. I spent my life investigating transportation accidents, so I want a heavy car with a full frame for my family's safety. Since the Excursion's no longer made, I drive an Expedition. I don't care what the gas costs. To me it's worth the price to be safe and comfortable. My money is mine, and this is how I choose to spend it.

I just got home today from a highway trip with my wife, step daughter, two grandsons, my two dogs, and our cat onboard while pulling a trailer full of my tools. Talk about precious cargo. Well maybe not the cat so much. Oh yeah and I also had a bunch of beer that never got all drunk from vacation in a cooler on the trailer also...Hey that’s gotta rank up there somewhere.

 

[07navi]

AMEN Brother! I think I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again....a Smart car is anything but smart in my book. Or any of those other little tiny cars running on the highways with tractor trailers and such.

The smart car has an integral cage that will withstand almost any crash...……….but wait; The G forces will kill you anyway.

 

[Boostedbus]

The smart car has an integral cage that will withstand almost any crash...……….but wait; The G forces will kill you anyway.

The the G stand for gay? Nothing against the gay community, but that car doesn’t seem very masculine too me at all. Actually owning one could possibly get your man card revoked.

 

[07navi]

The the G stand for gay? Nothing against the gay community, but that car doesn’t seem very masculine too me at all. Actually owning one could possibly get your man card revoked.

I do only see women driving them...…..

 

[Gregg Eshelman]

Just got an 09 Prius, for the MPGs. Not dropping the 16 MPG (on a very good freeway day) 07 Expy EL. Its load capacity is too frequently useful to not have it.

No, I'm not going to be doing silly hypermiling BS with the hybrid to try and get 60 MPG while ******* off everyone else on the road. It's good enough that it'll easily get 25 and way up MPG without doing any special driving techniques.

 

[Aspen03]

Many of these are great reasons to own an expedition. I'm not here trying to talk anyone out of one or saying big truck bad, batteries good. I'm saying for my personal preference if I didnt require one it for sure wouldnt be top of my list. I don't own a boat, trailer, motorcycle, jet ski, camper, etc. I'm likely the minority in this group as far as those things go. I just enjoy nimble, faster vehicles more than these.

It's not that I don't like the expedition or the navigator, it's actually quite the opposite, both are extremely comfortable to drive, well appointed for 2003 models, quiet, have almost enough space, we can never have enough with the kids it seems.

Safety wise I don't doubt it but have had very impressive levels of protection from vehicles considerably smaller in size and mass. I've been in 13 accidents, I used to travel extensively for work and almost half happened during that time. Only 1 at fault and was minor. I've avoided serious injury save for some back issues. The worst destruction wise was being t boned by the largest uhaul truck offered that ran a red light and hit me in the driver side. I was in a 2000 buick regal, roughly 25-30mph impact I was told. Caved in my doors and b pillar by about 10", bent my seat over, buckled the roof, all the fun stuff. Side impact bags weren't in the vehicle so I took the brunt. No broken bones fortunately. It was by far the hardest hit but I was more or less pushed through and didnt make contact with anything else. My car was lowered and the bumper of the truck hit the door beams perfectly square which distributed the impact and kept it from coming inside and destroying my hip/legs.

Smart cars make 0 sense to me. They dont really do any better mileage wise than a corolla or civic which are considerably more roomy and better equipped and in a lot of cases cheaper. If someone wants mileage snatch up a Cruze diesel. Middle 50s mpg is not a problem. I have a friend who drove all over the state and routinely got 700+ miles to a tank in his. I'd hate to drive a Cruze for 700mi because I find them rather uncomfortable and noisy but if you're after economy and no hybrid its hard to beat.

Mmart, my first car was an 84 t bird. That digital dash, automatic headlights, it was loaded. Not bad for $700 in the 90s!